In 2010, Sandlin was awarded a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.
Since he began his professional career as an artist in the 1980s, visual narrative has been a core component of his work.
In 1988, Sandlin published his post-modernist graphic novel Land Of 1000 Beers through the School of Visual Arts Press.
In addition to painting and printmaking, since 1995 Sandlin has worked on a book series, A Sinner’s Progress, in various formats ranging from hand-silkscreened editions to an abecedarium published by Fantagraphics.
Both his childhood in a strife-torn Protestant neighborhood on the Shankill Road in Belfast and the abrupt move from a relatively cosmopolitan European city to an isolated Bible Belt town in north Alabama defined Sandlin's artistic outlook.